The Hunches - Hobo Sunrise

THE HUNCHES
HOBO SUNRISE
(In The Red Records)

The "hunch": a gut feeling. A semi-clairvoyant warning. A personal, unignorable, unexplainable wave of impending doom. Demented (not to mention perfect candidate for straight-jacket) one man-band country caterwauler Hasil Adkins spoke of the "the hunch" in bizzare, somewhat vague terms ("It tickles me when they's expecting me to hunch it...") and seemed to use it every chance he got, like some sort of psychotic mantra. Point being - "the hunch" is a serious situation, a mental buzzing that could drive you crazy if you let it. When you've got a hunch, you KNOW you're in trouble.

Now imagine four of them...personified, armed with instruments that create some of the most hateful yet somehow irresistible punk rock static electricity ever. Forging a sound that world's beyond "Garage",The Hunches give you the audio equivalent to an Indian burn on their new album "Hobo Sunrise".On the the near epic "This Human Propeller", Chris Gunn's guitar vomits thick sheets of white noise while Ben's drums pull paranoid punches at Sarah's bowel-moving bass drone.

This is easily the most intense album to come down the pike in a very long time. Vocalist Hart Gledhill has one seriously frustrated voice and attitude...like someone who's been up all night, arguing drunk to someone who will just never get it. It's almost like early Rolling Stones gone to a place more dangerous than Hell itself, somehow perfectly conveying that distinct feeling of being so spun on speed that you're convinced there is indeed cockroaches crawling inside your heart and you're beating on your chest to murder the motherfuckers.

It's the unbridled panic of one who kills and can't stop but desperately wishes they could. It's all screams and muffled cries through bandana gags and then all of a sudden one of the surprisingly sentimental songs like "Nosedive", "Two Ghosts" or "Flower In The Ending" cuts through the chaos, sounding dangerously like a song that could have been in some John Hughes teenage-drama flick that would give you embarrassing goosebumps.

Recorded at the infamous Distillery in Costa Mesa (previously visited by bands like Le Shok and Rocket From The Crypt) and engineered / produced by renowned recording genius Mike McHugh, "Hobo Sunrise" accurately "captures" (think caged-up rabid animals) The Hunches in their most vengeful and venomous form, successfully channeling all the hate, rage, jealousy, and defeat of our lives into 14 menu choices that don't go down that easy but you are so fucking hungry that you'll be licking your plate. Craving to murder the closest stranger- "Compression" will satisfy that primal urge without having to actually do it. Overwhelming feeling of super self-loathing- "Frustration Rocket" will open up your wrists while keeping the razor blades at bay.

In the most cliched, simplest terms - it's an emotional rollercoaster of an album, almost "revolutionary" for the sometimes limiting and closed-minded garage scene which always seems like it's hit a brick wall. The Hunches throw real-life tantrums with no remorse that we only wish we could throw ourselves in a world with no repercussions. Tags